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Investigators '90% sure' noise heard on Russian plane's black box was caused by bomb

Investigators are "90% sure" the noise heard on the black box of a Russian airliner seconds befor...
Newstalk
Newstalk

12.52 8 Nov 2015


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Investigators '90% sur...

Investigators '90% sure' noise heard on Russian plane's black box was caused by bomb

Newstalk
Newstalk

12.52 8 Nov 2015


Share this article


Investigators are "90% sure" the noise heard on the black box of a Russian airliner seconds before it crashed was caused by a bomb.

"The indications and analysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb," a member of the air accident investigation team in Egypt told Reuters.

It comes a day after Egyptian investigators said a "spectral analysis" of the "nature of the noise" on the flight recorder was underway.

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The US and Britain previously said an explosive device is likely to have brought down the Metrojet flight last Saturday, which Islamic State has claimed responsibility for.

All 224 people on board the plane were killed.

Security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport has become a widespread concern since the crash with the UK, Russia and various other countries suspending flights from the Red Sea resort.

Seven officials told the Associate Press that the airport has long suffered from security gaps including a malfunctioning key baggage scanning device, lax searches at an entry gate for plane food and fuel and bribe-taking by policemen.

They described how poor paid policemen monitoring X-ray machines often took bribes for as little as 10 euros to let through "a bag full of drugs or weapons".

They added that bosses had failed to replace a faulty scanner in the sorting area for checked-in bags - an issue that had been raised in security reports.

One said the machine was unplugged to save power at times and even when it was working was only used to scan a sample of bags.

Another official said the staff made sure the scanner was operating well enough whenever international experts came to review measures at the airport.

The officials also revealed full searches weren’t always carried out at the entry gates where food is delivered directly to some planes by local hotels, either because guards know the delivery men or have been bribed with meals.

A retired senior official from Egypt's Tourism Ministry, Magdy Salim, said airport guards regularly skip security checks for friends and co-workers and often didn't search people "out of respect to save their time if they look chic or if they come out of a fancy car".

"Airport security procedures in Egypt are almost (all) bad" and marred by "insufficiencies," Mr Salim said.

A spokesman for Egypt’s Aviation Ministry dismissed the claims saying "Sharm el-Sheikh is one of the safest airports in the world", while the Egyptian President previously said a British security team were satisfied with the airport after a visit 10 months ago.

The Russian government, meanwhile, says it has brought home 11,000 of its citizens from Egypt in the last 24 hours.

Thousands of holidaymakers have been waiting to leave the Sharm el-Sheikh resort since the Russian plane crashed in the Sinai desert.

Some 1,945 passengers returned to the UK yesterday and a similar number are expected to return today - but many will be stranded in the country for days.

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs has advised anybody concerned about the situation to contact him. There are currently no Irish tour operators with package holiday groups in Sharm el-Sheikh, the department added.

 


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